Obama under fire as oil spill crisis continues (ABC News)

Mr Obama has made it clear he is angry with the companies involved in the oil spill. (Reuters: Kevin ...

After more than three weeks of oil leaking unchecked from the bottom of the sea in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is reporting some success in inserting a tube into the worst of the leaks.

It comes just in time for the oil giant after criticism last week from a frustrated US president Barack Obama.

At the end of last week at a White House press conference Mr Obama made it clear he was angry with the companies involved in the oil spill.

He said the attempt by the executives of BP, Transocean and Halliburton to blame each other for the disaster was a "ridiculous spectacle".

The outburst caught the attention of America's late night talk shows, with Jay Leno weighing in.

"He said he was tired of finger-pointing and then he blamed the Bush administration for the whole thing," Leno said.

An increasing number of conservatives say finger-pointing is precisely what Mr Obama was doing when he also accused federal regulators of having a cosy relationship with the oil industry, stretching back over a decade.

Some US political commentators such as Fortune Magazine's Nina Eastern agree the president is trying to deflect the blame.

"He's on the hot seat right now," she said.

"Three days in... they're downplaying it. It takes the president nine days to even talk about it publicly, it takes him almost two weeks to get there."

Speaking on Fox News, the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes says the president went too far.

"It was so incredibly foolish of him to say what he said on Friday," he said.

"He went after the oil companies, which I think is understandable - from a messaging perspective [it] was probably a wise thing to do - but then to throw in the Bush administration and hint that this was a Washington problem."

In another Fox interview former first lady Laura Bush said there was a liberal bias against her husband and that the Obamas are being treated differently.

"If that had been George W Bush instead of Barack Obama it would have been a national scandal," host Chris Wallace said.

"Well, I think that's right," replied Mrs Bush. "Probably. But you know, it's just, that's just how it is, we knew that."

An NBC/Wall Street Journal opinion poll shows half of those surveyed think BP has not done enough to contain the oil spill.

Forty-five per cent say the US government has not done enough.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says it is time to look at the Obama administration's record with senior officials expected to appear at hearings this week.

"The president spent a whole lot of time pointing the finger at BP, and you should point the finger at BP and the other companies involved in it, but we're also interested to know what the administration did," he said.

"What kind of oversight did the administration provide during the course of the drilling? There are plenty of questions that need to be answered."

The same poll shows Mr Obama's job approval rating is still sitting at about 50 per cent and 60 per cent of those surveyed still support offshore drilling.